Share this Story

How Did I Miss That? Goldman Sachs: The Vampire Squid; Merle Haggard

Steve Russell

2/28/14

There’s an Internet meme going around that the name for a group of baboons is a “congress.” Very funny, but untrue. The proper term is “troop.” In addition to being incorrect, my Cousin Ray Sixkiller called the meme “insulting to baboons.”

The New York Times reported that an organization has formed in Kern County, California to preserve the boyhood home of country music legend Merle Haggard, 76.

Video of Merle Haggard - Working Man Blues

The house was put together during the Depression by Haggard’s Okie father, a carpenter for the Santa Fe Railroad, who created a home for his family from a surplus boxcar. “Save Hag’s Boxcar” promises to build a similar-size home for the current occupant if they can raise the money to move the boxcar to a museum in Bakersfield. Haggard’s father walked on from a stroke when the boy was 9, and Hag hopped his first freight train at 11, beginning “the juvenile delinquency, the incarcerations, the five marriages and bankruptcy.” He poured his pain into the “Bakersfield Sound,” a gritty alternative to the slickness Nashville had become.

The Denver Post reported that Colorado Republican State Sen. Bernie Herpin testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in opposition to limits on magazine capacity that it “was maybe a good thing he (Aurora theater shooter James Holmes) had a 100 round magazine because it jammed.” “What if,” Cousin Ray wanted to know, “the 100 round magazine on your hunting weapon jammed just as you were about to be attacked by an angry herd of Colorado antelopes armed with AK-47s?”

Matt Taibbi, probably the best writer in the popular media on how the investment banks ran the world economy into the ditch, posted an announcement that he’s leaving Rolling Stone for First Look Media, the outfit that now employs the reporter who broke most of Edward Snowden’s revelations. I am known in my small circle for christening the investment bank Goldman, Sachs “Golden Sacks.” Taibbi called it “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” “Steve,” consoled my dear Cousin Ray Sixkiller, “you can’t win them all.”

The Courier of Montgomery County reports on an actual case of voter fraud in Texas. Seven people allegedly switched their voter registration to a Residence Inn for the purpose of taking control of a Road Utility District. This works in a state where a Municipal Utility District once legally floated $400 million in bonds on the vote of one guy living in a FEMA trailer at the behest of developers who expected to flip the property to real residents who would then have to pay off the bonds with property taxes. “If this sounds odd,” commented Cousin Ray, “explain how voter ID laws could stop it?”

sorry to disagree, Michael, but it feels to me like indian country today has given mr. Russell free rein to rant and carry on unfettered...and yes, I know everyone has their own opinion, and I should probably keep mine to myself...i am just not a fan of negativity...like my Choctaw gramma used to say...'if ya cant say something good, don't say anything'....somehow, the older i get, the more i see the clarity of that one....

Either you are in a minority among Choctaws or I have met a biased sample in my life.
But regardless of how many Chata hold the opinion you express, here's my response: you are making a general argument against the whole idea of democracy, because it's not possible for any individual to influence public policy without making public criticisms. That is, negativity is the life blood of public debate and public debate is how things change.
I get gigged all the time for making jokes about serious matters, but your complaint is not that I make jokes about my disagreements with the government but that I express them. Please think though how "speak no evil" must of necessity translate as "shut up and do as you are told."
The man I consciously set out to emulate, Will Rogers, also used humor...but he could never be accused of shutting up about disagreements with the government. Joking about serious stuff means you are always walking a line of poor taste. Rogers fell over it a few times and I expect I will too because I'm not as smart as he was. But the stuff that happens along that line is worth the risk, if you don't hold with "shut up and do as you are told."